Project description
Efficient mechanisms for sustainable security
Electricity consumption by IT is growing, but resource sharing introduces information leakage risks, while reduced reliability margins cause fault attacks. Security is added to reliability mechanisms without considering adversaries, adding energy costs. The EU-funded FSSec project aims to improve efficiency by measuring security, designing efficient security mechanisms, using security to increase efficiency, and securing microarchitectural optimisations and lightweight isolation. The project will integrate principled cryptography grade security into all system layers, minimising and superseding inefficient reliability mechanisms to establish innovative foundations for sustainable security.
Objective
Security and efficiency are often seen as a conflict. IT already consumes 11% of electricity globally, with a steep upwards trend. Resource sharing increases efficiency but introduces information leakage vulnerabilities, such as Meltdown and Spectre. Reducing reliability margins also increases efficiency but introduces fault attacks, such as Rowhammer and Plundervolt. This reveals a fundamental problem in current systems: Reliability mechanisms are not designed with adversaries in mind. Security is then patched on top of reliability mechanisms, incurring additional energy costs.
We will overcome the conflict between security and efficiency with novel foundations to make security sustainable and use security to increase efficiency. We will research how to measure the efficiency of security, design principled and efficient security mechanisms, utilize security to increase efficiency, secure microarchitectural optimizations, and secure lightweight isolation.
Our methodology is to integrate principled cryptography-grade security into all system layers to minimize and supersede inefficient reliability mechanisms. We will develop a framework for fine-grained energy efficiency measurements. We will research fine-grained replication for side-channel isolation, maintaining efficiency. We will explore selective resource sharing for secure variables, enclaves, and virtual machines, superseding today's inefficient and insecure techniques.
The originality of FSSec stands out in that energy efficiency has played no role in security so far. In particular, using cryptography to replace established error correction methods will be the key to our goal of using security to increase efficiency by 20% compared to current systems. We will construct secure optimizations with fine-grained isolation, increasing the efficiency without adding side channels.
Asst.-Prof. Daniel Gruss heads an internationally renowned security research group. FSSec will fund 6 PhD students.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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8010 Graz
Austria
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